video capture questions

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 8:07 am

Fp,
I noticed some people are reffering to Stand ALone recorders, and Set top players.

I was meaning dvd player for the tv when I said standalone. Us that what you were reffering to also, or did you think I meant a recorder?

Just recently saw that they make a recorder like

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Tue Jun 17, 2003 2:08 pm

Only problems I've had making DVDs for set-top players is when I burn anything in DVD+R. Many DVD players can't read them. Ironically I have no problem with DVD+RW, just DVD+R.

Everything seems to read DVD-R just fine. I stick to DVD-R for videos.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 2:38 am

yeah, my burner came with easy cd dvd ed. which just sucks. hardly any options on the menus. I can not find a "pick your own background" option anywhere. unacceptable. im looking at the mydvd video ed. for 70 or so bucks but alot of the customer reviews were really negative. said it was really buggy. I would love to have premiere 6.5 but for 500 clams, ill pass.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Jun 18, 2003 8:06 am

MyDVD does have a few bugs, but all are manageable.

I have tried a lot of different DVD solutions, and it's by far the simplest and easiest with the most options.

Nice selection of backgrounds and you can add your own. They even have animated menus and backgrounds.

If you have some patience you can also make your own menu skins.

Image quality is excellent if you use the high quality setting.

NeoDVD is also easy to use, but the image quality sucks. I don't recommend it.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 10:38 am

I hope I didnt make a mistake by getting a +R drive. the one disc ive burned worked on my set top player but if I make a bunch of discs and then get a diff player later, I might have problems, hmmmm......

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 3:23 pm

Any player made from today onward will play DVD+ discs just fine. The only problems you'll have is with some older players.

Anything made it the last year or so should handle them fine.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 9:55 pm

I would hope all new dvd players would support both formats fully, but I wonder?

I just got a new directory catalog of Asain products and manufactuers. Most of the DVD players that listed in the adds what formats they supported showed DVD -r. Hopefully they support other stuff too that wasn't listed.

Some showed DVD +r and +rw. Afew even showed VCD and other stuff.
Many adds did not show anything for formats. Just gave hype about the players, company and oem products.

Whats the best rates for calling China and Tiawan, and what time is it there?

Think I might have some calls to make soon

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Thu Jun 19, 2003 9:58 pm

thats good to know FP, thanks.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 10:37 am

hey, I have another question. when I capture now, it saves my my capture as a .avi format. shouldnt that be saving as a .mpeg2 for better quality? I got the mpeg2 decoder for nero but it wont save it in that format, only avi. I burned a disc using my new capture w/firewire but the quality is still kinda pixelated, not bad but noticable.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 1:00 pm

Depends on what you're using for capture software. Some captures as AVI, some capture direct to MPEG2.

I recommend Ulead Video Studio if you plan on doing any editing and don't want to deal with a complicated program. It also saves captures at MPEG2 saving space.

If you want to do professional editing, though, you should capture and edite AVIs and that convert to Mpeg2, but for most people that's not necessary.

An excellent program I use if I'm just dumping video straight to DVD is MyDVD. It can also capture to an MPEG2 files though.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Fri Jun 20, 2003 1:19 pm

is mpeg2 better quality than avi? from what ive read, it seems to be

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 6:14 pm

I think AVI is supposed to be the best quality do to lack of compression, but extremely large files sizes. That's why some people capture it to do editing, but then convert to mpeg2 for better compresion and smaller file sizes while still maintaining high quality.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Sat Jun 21, 2003 9:01 pm

Yes RAW AVI (no compression) is best quality. HUGE files. Ideal for professional editing.

However most editors today will do decent editing with MPEG2 - good enough for home use.

I capture to AVIs when it's something important I have to edit, but I stick with MPEG2 if it's just family videos.

whatever · Post by **whatever** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 7:49 pm

cool, thnx for the info. I guess easy cd dvd and nero dont capture to mpeg2 because avi is the only option it gives me.

canton_kid · Post by **canton_kid** » Sun Jun 22, 2003 8:28 pm

Nero does not even give me an option to capture. The button is there but greyed out, I don't think it understands I have a AIT AIW installed